The Big Goodfellas' Smile Soap Overview & Review

[Guido75]

As if the universe knew @dan86! Solo was up next. Solo has a fresh scent of citrus and lime combined with jasmine and similar scents. There is also a level of manliness to the scent in terms of more earthy/woody fragrances. Lathering qualities as expected. Similar to Furiah I experienced difficulty to remove soap residue from my brushes. All in all a great soap for the summer I would say.

Cheers,

Guido

 

[dan86]

As if the universe knew @dan86! Solo was up next. Solo has a fresh scent of citrus and lime combined with jasmine and similar scents. There is also a level of manliness to the scent in terms of more earthy/woody fragrances. Lathering qualities as expected. Similar to Furiah I experienced difficulty to remove soap residue from my brushes. All in all a great soap for the summer I would say.

Cheers,

Guido

Thanks Guido. It was written in the stars! Love the design on the lid of Solo too with the demonic looking cellist. A great scent and highly reminiscent of Chanel’s Platinum Égoïste. Would love if it they did a take on Chanel Égoïste.

 

[Guido75]

This week Jack (@JCarr) is with me during my shaves as I test Abysso. Fine cream that produces great lather. I do have to take my time to make sure all my cream is transformed into soap. Great glide and nice scent that tends to linger quite some time after the shave, even after using Proraso Green as after shave.

Scent tones are citrus, bergamot, pineapple and some hint of the sea. I also smell more manly scents such as wood and foresty. The combination is good and mrs-approved too. Would works great with the accompanying aftershave I would reckon.

 

[Guido75]

Continuing my streak with Goodfellas Smile Soap after using Lavanda during holiday travels and my participation in Aventus August. This time Amber Fougere was up. Straight out of the tub this was not a favorite scent of mine. I cannot really tell what it smells like, but there is something sweet and something foresty about this soap. Also hints of citrus / lemon are present. According to Goodfellas themselves Floral and Amber - but it must be my nose that I cannot detect the floral part that much.

During lathering the scent actually becomes better and is quite ok. Lathering itself is ambivalent. It has excellent lathering performance and you really need just a small amount to make great lather. But the flipside of the coin is that the soap is gummy in my bowl and therefore I am not using all soap to make my lather. Call it soap residue if you want, but not all product gets used that way. Or I am using way to much, could also be. The result however is that during lather application I get bits of soap on my cheeks rather than lather. And that same residue sticks to my brushes during rinsing after the shave. Just like I experienced with Furriah and other soaps. If I recall correctly Amber Fougere and Furriah share the same soap base.

Last thing about Amber Fougere and something I did not recall experiencing with the other samples is that the glide performance is less - almost dry even. That does not particularly help with more aggressive razors such as the Fatips and the Razorine Flatboy I have. My Gillette Flat Bottom Tech for example kept performing very well (but then again that razor seems to perform no matter what, without lather perhaps even ).

 

[JCarr]

I really like the scent on Amber Fougere. I haven't used it yet, but will keep an eye out for the gummy residue you described. Thanks @Guido75 !

 

[Guido75]

Next up in line was/is Re Nero. And of all the ones I have tried this is the one I currently like the most - and straight out of the tub even. Performance is as expected with a little less residue as the other ones. More manageable.

It smells forestry and fresh. According to Rasoigoodfellas it consists of grapefruit, orange, neroli, black pepper, pelargonium, patchouly, and cedar wood. I cannot smell all of these but I was not surprised that patchouli and fruit were part of the tone definition.

This went on my wish list after the first shave. Good stuff and there is an aftershave (with and without alcohol) to go with it.

Best,

Guido

 

[Hak.1963]

As if the universe knew @dan86! Solo was up next. Solo has a fresh scent of citrus and lime combined with jasmine and similar scents. There is also a level of manliness to the scent in terms of more earthy/woody fragrances. Lathering qualities as expected. Similar to Furiah I experienced difficulty to remove soap residue from my brushes. All in all a great soap for the summer I would say.

Cheers,

Guido

Solo soap together with Solo AS is a match made in heaven during summer.
So nice and fresh scent, a real complimant giver

 

[Guido75]

It has been a while since I posted, but two more soaps have been tested and reviewed in September - being Orange Empire and Royal Lime. They get their respective names from the obvious fruits in their titles and yes, they smell like their name. I must say that Orange Empire is more obvious than Royal Lime. Royal Lime has a very sweet undertone that I do not necessarily associate with Lime.

Both also share similar lathering qualities. Once you have your lather going they perform wonderfully, but to get a lather going is more difficult with these ones. I found that a synthetic brush with plenty of backbone, like my unbranded one and my De Vergulde Hand, works best. Otherwise you risk having a decent lather only to find out that you have a lump remaining at the bottom of your bowl during cleaning (and to be clear: I usually underload rather than overload on my soaps). I imagine that it might have something to do with the sample size of these soaps. A full tub might be easier on the loading part. Orange Empire rinses out nicely from the brush while Royal Lime has a tendency to make the bristles stick together even when using opius amounts of rinse water.

Slickness and glide are fanastic during the shave and also the post-shave feel is excellent. Scents remain quite long too. I would place these higher up the hierarchy of TGS soaps.

 

[Hak.1963]

It has been a while since I posted, but two more soaps have been tested and reviewed in September - being Orange Empire and Royal Lime. They get their respective names from the obvious fruits in their titles and yes, they smell like their name. I must say that Orange Empire is more obvious than Royal Lime. Royal Lime has a very sweet undertone that I do not necessarily associate with Lime.

Both also share similar lathering qualities. Once you have your lather going they perform wonderfully, but to get a lather going is more difficult with these ones. I found that a synthetic brush with plenty of backbone, like my unbranded one and my De Vergulde Hand, works best. Otherwise you risk having a decent lather only to find out that you have a lump remaining at the bottom of your bowl during cleaning (and to be clear: I usually underload rather than overload on my soaps). I imagine that it might have something to do with the sample size of these soaps. A full tub might be easier on the loading part. Orange Empire rinses out nicely from the brush while Royal Lime has a tendency to make the bristles stick together even when using opius amounts of rinse water.

Slickness and glide are fanastic during the shave and also the post-shave feel is excellent. Scents remain quite long too. I would place these higher up the hierarchy of TGS soaps.

I have Orange Empire and I think it's a great shaving soap in the summer, and the After Shave smells wonderful (one of my wife's favorites).
The only downside to the scent, which I think applies to most citrus based scents, is that it doesn't last very long.

 

[Hak.1963]

Next up was Furiah which is now on the smokey/earthy side of scents. Scent has to grow on me, but of the ones I have tried so far my least favourite.

And one thing I do not particularly like about this soap is that it clumps my brush hairs together even after rinsing. Hard to remove. Did not experience that worth the other soaps. Given this I think we will leave at a sample for Furiah.

Furiah is one of my favorites, I think I have a lot of favorites LOL, and my thought was that you tried the soap in the wrong season.
Furiah is a warm, dark, rich winter scent, and in my nose it's hard to combine these darker tobacco scents with summer.
Please try it again when it gets dark and cold in winter

 

[Guido75]

Furiah is one of my favorites, I think I have a lot of favorites LOL, and my thought was that you tried the soap in the wrong season.
Furiah is a warm, dark, rich winter scent, and in my nose it's hard to combine these darker tobacco scents with summer.
Please try it again when it gets dark and cold in winter

Will do! More than enough for additional shaves.

Cheers,

Guido

 

[fast shaver]

Sounds like its an A-1 soap.! Will put it on my soap list.

 

[Guido75]

Next up was Savage which quickly rose to the top 5 of favourite scents so far. LOTH steal of approval too. It smells fresh and definitely has citrus notes in it. Maybe floral as well. Yet there are also some musky manly scents present.

Performance was excellent. Great lather. There is that issue with residual stickiness on the brushes thing. But other than that nice soap.

 

[Guido75]

Following Savage it was Sea Citrus’ turn to shine. Again one of the soaps that rose to fame quickly in my journal. Lovely scent - of course citrus. Fresh and inviting. LOTH seal of approval.

Lathering was easy and I found a way to circumvent the stickiness in my brushes. Simple solution really that came to me when reading one of @Ron R ’s posts about his way of lathering MWF. I smeared my dollop of soap across the bottom of my bowl. That really made a difference (yah duh you might say, and I agree, but seeing and doing are two different things).

Lather is wonderful and slick to provide cushion and glide.

This is a keeper.

 

[Ron R]

Following Savage it was Sea Citrus’ turn to shine. Again one of the soaps that rose to fame quickly in my journal. Lovely scent - of course citrus. Fresh and inviting. LOTH seal of approval.

Lathering was easy and I found a way to circumvent the stickiness in my brushes. Simple solution really that came to me when reading one of @Ron R ’s posts about his way of lathering MWF. I smeared my dollop of soap across the bottom of my bowl. That really made a difference (yah duh you might say, and I agree, but seeing and doing are two different things).

Lather is wonderful and slick to provide cushion and glide.

This is a keeper.

Thanks for the kind words on the MWF way of lathering, that's why I write small tid bits or (Thinking out loud) on SOTD that it might help some fellows along the way having issues or are the curious type ..... I use to train apprentices where I worked and it's just the way I do things now and for many years of working in the maintenance mechanical field fixing equipment . Shaving it has lots of area's where knowledge has been forgotten or just another method of getting to similar results but with a different method that might benefit someone or shave gear.
I never thought I would be using carbon steel razor blades but tomorrow I will be trying my first DE carbon steel blade after 5 years of using stainless steel blades, some folks claim they are slightly smoother(I'm curious type and @Whiterook sent me a few to try out for a week.) Oh some of us are still on the shaving learning curve one way or another it seems!

 

[Guido75]

You are most welcome @Ron R . Training on the job is ever so important in an age where everything seems to be geared towards ‘looking it up’ or googling it. Experience however comes from actually doing it and using the practical knowledge passed on in combination with new things. Anyway, it struck a chord with me.

I have yet to try carbon steel. Been eyeing Treet Falcon which is supposedly smooth and sharp. So looking forward to your findings and observations there!

Keep those out loud thoughts coming! Newbies like me become better shavers because of it!

Guido

 

[Guido75]

Next up and second last sample: Shibusa 2. Supposedly inspired by Acqua di Parma, but since I have never smelled that I cannot confirm. What I can say is that I get the hints of sweetness from the almond, coconut and vanilla. I also get the musky undertone to the scent and an overall sense of freshness. Masculine, but not macho. Goes well in winter as in warmer weather, I think.

This soap is tallow-based and lathers amazingly as one would expect, I guess. No residue on the brush, also because of the smearing the soap across the bottom of my lather bowl.

When I first smelled it during the unboxing of the samples I was underwhelmed and also thought this scent wasn't for me, but actually using it for four times now- makes me revisit that initial judgment. I like this one.

 

[Guido75]

Last of the lot was Tallow Nr.1 and apparently I have s(h)aved the best for last. What a wonderful soap this is born in scent and lathering qualities.

A small (seriously small) amount really goes a long way and provides an excellent think and rich lather. Great blade support and glide. You don’t even notice the blade at times because of the richness of the lather. But at the same time is does not clog the razor that much.

As for the scent, Tallow Nr1 is based on Rose, Jasmine and Orange Blossom which I get from smelling - I haveo idea what heliotrope smells like. I also get the Amber and Musk hints.

Obviously based on Tallowate (which I either missed in making my tangle in the OP or which is not always mentioned in the ingredients list - I am guessing the first).

Smearing it on the bottom of the bowl prevents the soap from sticking to the brush post shave.

 

[JCarr]

Was blown away by Amber Fougere's scent on the first use. Ordered the aftershave from Pasteur's Pharmacy. My second puck of Abysso however was disappointing. It was nothing like the scent of the first puck I had. I think they must have tweaked the scent profile a bit. My first puck...the soap was almost black in color and the lather was dove gray. This new puck, the soap is white. So... something changed. It's kind of a shame because that was one of my favorite scents/soaps.

 

[Guido75]

Hi Jack @JCarr - shame they apparently changed it. That sort of bugs me - you find something to your liking and almost immediately you need to haul everything in, because who knows for how long everything will be available.

Abysso is one of the nicer ones I came across on this sample pack. Now that winter is coming I want to revisit Amber Fouger to see if I like it more this time. Same for Furiah.

Cheers,

Guido